Juventus and AS Roma are the two clear title favourites after 10 rounds of Serie A.
Figuring out which club will finish third and claim the last Champions League spot is a little more difficult.
After AC Milan’s visit to Sampdoria on Saturday, the situation could become a bit clearer.
Sampdoria are tied for third with Lazio and have lost just once this season, while Milan are two points further behind after going winless in their last three matches.
At the top of the table, Juventus hold a three-point lead over Roma.
Juventus, coming off a difficult 3-2 win over Olympiakos in the Champions League, host struggling Parma on Sunday while Roma, who lost 2-0 at Bayern Munich midweek, host Torino.
In other key matches this weekend, Empoli face Lazio; Fiorentina meet Napoli; and Inter Milan take on Verona.
Here are some things to know about Serie A:
French connection
Michel Platini was the first. Then came Zinedine Zidane and Didier Deschamps, followed by David Trezeguet.
Now Paul Pogba is the latest France international to make a big impact at Juventus.
Let go by Manchester United two years ago, the 21-year-old is rapidly developing into a force in midfield.
Pogba scored the first Champions League goal of his career against Olympiakos and also drew the foul that led to Juve’s opening goal, a free kick from Andrea Pirlo.
That came a week after Pogba extended his contract with Juventus through 2018/19, ending speculation that he would transfer to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain or back to the English Premier League.
“I’m happy to stay here,” Pogba said Wednesday. “I want to continue wearing this shirt for a long time and perhaps one day go down in Juve’s history like Platini and Zidane.”
Pogba was also the only Serie A player included in the 23-man list of nominees for the Fifa Ballon d’Or last week.
“Pogba is improving. He just needs to become more consistent. That’s his only defect,” Juventus CEO Giuseppe Marotta said. “But he has natural talent and he’s one of the brightest young players out there. He has a glorious career ahead of him.”
Roma’s psyche
Having been humiliated by Bayern Munich in a 7-1 loss at home two weeks ago, Roma resigned themselves to mostly defending and limiting the damage in the 2-0 loss to the Bavarians this week.
“The important thing was to defend well and we did,” Roma coach Rudi Garcia said. “I’m proud of my boys. It wasn’t a surrender.”
Still, Italian media took aim at his decision to rest several key players for the game.
“Rudi paralysed: He was afraid of another lesson,” read a headline in the Gazzetta dello Sport.
On the eve of the first Bayern match, Garcia declared that he was convinced that Roma would win Serie A. And midfield veteran Daniele De Rossi said this was the strongest Roma side he’s been a part of.
The two losses to Bayern, plus a couple of recent stumbles in Serie A, have altered Roma’s approach.
“We knew we couldn’t win,” midfielder Radja Nainggolan said after the latest Bayern match.
Added De Rossi: “This was an impossible challenge for us. Sunday night at Olimpico against Torino will be much more important.”
Gladiator game
A proposal from Roma’s American president James Pallotta to hold a football match inside the Colosseum has been met with opposition from a government official.
“I have one big goal,” Pallotta told CNN recently. “I want to get the city to let us play somebody like Barcelona or Bayern Munich or someone like that at the Colosseum.
“We’ll do a pay-per-view on it, $25 around the world,” Pallotta added. “We could get 300 million people wanting to watch that around the world – a game in the Colosseum which they’ll never see again.
“We take that money, which could be billions of dollars, and then set up a foundation in Rome to fix up the antiquities even faster and put the rest towards inner city programs in Rome.”
Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini did not take well to the idea
“If Roma’s president wants to contribute to a fundraiser for restoring the capital’s monuments there are many possibilities to do so,” Franceschini said. “But let’s not joke around about the Colosseum.”
Dutch defence
Stefan De Vrij has quickly become the defensive anchor of a Lazio side that have won five of their last six matches.
Named one of the top defenders in the Netherlands’ run to the World Cup semi-finals, De Vrij joined Lazio from Feyenoord in July.
He has played in nine of 10 matches, missing only one game due to suspension.
Former Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal reportedly considered taking De Vrij with him to Manchester United but then suggested the defender head to Italy.
“Lazio was the only club before the World Cup who were really interested in me and I really liked that,” De Vrij said when he joined the Roman club.
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Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The biog
Nickname: Mama Nadia to children, staff and parents
Education: Bachelors degree in English Literature with Social work from UAE University
As a child: Kept sweets on the window sill for workers, set aside money to pay for education of needy families
Holidays: Spends most of her days off at Senses often with her family who describe the centre as part of their life too
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
The five pillars of Islam
More from Neighbourhood Watch
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
On Instagram: @WithHopeUAE
Although social media can be harmful to our mental health, paradoxically, one of the antidotes comes with the many social-media accounts devoted to normalising mental-health struggles. With Hope UAE is one of them.
The group, which has about 3,600 followers, was started three years ago by five Emirati women to address the stigma surrounding the subject. Via Instagram, the group recently began featuring personal accounts by Emiratis. The posts are written under the hashtag #mymindmatters, along with a black-and-white photo of the subject holding the group’s signature red balloon.
“Depression is ugly,” says one of the users, Amani. “It paints everything around me and everything in me.”
Saaed, meanwhile, faces the daunting task of caring for four family members with psychological disorders. “I’ve had no support and no resources here to help me,” he says. “It has been, and still is, a one-man battle against the demons of fractured minds.”
In addition to With Hope UAE’s frank social-media presence, the group holds talks and workshops in Dubai. “Change takes time,” Reem Al Ali, vice chairman and a founding member of With Hope UAE, told The National earlier this year. “It won’t happen overnight, and it will take persistent and passionate people to bring about this change.”
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